INTERVIEW
with
JULIET MILLS
who is starring in
THE LADY VANISHES
Palace Theatre, Westcliff on Sea
21st - 26th January 2019
with
JULIET MILLS
who is starring in
THE LADY VANISHES
Palace Theatre, Westcliff on Sea
21st - 26th January 2019
Chatting to Juliet Mills is an absolute joy. She is full of infectious enthusiasm and frequently bursts into laughter whilst regaling me of tales which include the current tour she is about to embark on with husband of 38 years, Maxwell Caulfield.
Bill Kenwright’s Classic Thriller Theatre Company will be heading to Southend’s Palace Theatre next week with a brand new adaption of the Hitchcock thriller, The Lady Vanishes, which opened in Windsor just last week.
When I speak to Juliet it is just three days before the opening night and I ask her if the cast, which also includes Lorna Fitzgerald (Abi Branning in Eastenders), Matt Barber (Downton Abbey), Robert Duncan (Drop the Dead Donkey), Philip Lowrie (Coronation Street) and Ben Nealon (Soldier Soldier), are all ready for their first performance of the play, to which she responds with an excitable, “Ooooh!”
Bill Kenwright’s Classic Thriller Theatre Company will be heading to Southend’s Palace Theatre next week with a brand new adaption of the Hitchcock thriller, The Lady Vanishes, which opened in Windsor just last week.
When I speak to Juliet it is just three days before the opening night and I ask her if the cast, which also includes Lorna Fitzgerald (Abi Branning in Eastenders), Matt Barber (Downton Abbey), Robert Duncan (Drop the Dead Donkey), Philip Lowrie (Coronation Street) and Ben Nealon (Soldier Soldier), are all ready for their first performance of the play, to which she responds with an excitable, “Ooooh!”
Juliet as Miss Froy with the rest of The Lady Vanishes cast
Juliet and Maxwell have just returned from a brief six day Christmas trip to their home in California.
“It was a bit tiring but it was well worth it." Juliet begins. "Just to go home and to be with our daughter and my son and his wife, and our nephew and a couple of friends who didn’t have anywhere else left to go.”
“It was a lovely Christmas at home and when we got back we went straight back into rehearsal.”
She is quick to tell me that both her and Maxwell did their play 'homework' during the festivities to keep it all fresh in their minds. “I kept on looking at the play every day; I didn’t let it get away from me.” The play’s director, Roy Marsden, must have been impressed with that.
“He was very pleased, yes. He is a lovely man and a very good director. I’ve really enjoyed working with him. He’s very talented and, of course, you know he wrote this play. He adapted it from the original Hitchcock movie.”
“It was a bit tiring but it was well worth it." Juliet begins. "Just to go home and to be with our daughter and my son and his wife, and our nephew and a couple of friends who didn’t have anywhere else left to go.”
“It was a lovely Christmas at home and when we got back we went straight back into rehearsal.”
She is quick to tell me that both her and Maxwell did their play 'homework' during the festivities to keep it all fresh in their minds. “I kept on looking at the play every day; I didn’t let it get away from me.” The play’s director, Roy Marsden, must have been impressed with that.
“He was very pleased, yes. He is a lovely man and a very good director. I’ve really enjoyed working with him. He’s very talented and, of course, you know he wrote this play. He adapted it from the original Hitchcock movie.”
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Juliet and Maxwell are no strangers to the touring life and Juliet tells me that they are very much looking forward to travelling around the country together.
“I enjoy it. It’s hard work but I particularly enjoy it when I’m with Maxwell because it’s like an adventure. We rent a car and we’re like turtles - everything we've got is in the car. We go from place to place and we set up home and explore the country; meet a lot of people and see a lot of friends that we haven’t seen for years.” I wonder if being together all the time can ever cause the couple to argue, to which Juliet responds, “Oh we sometimes do - things like, I want to go that way - no, that’s not it - how do you know - I know - those kind of arguments. We don’t have the kind of arguments where nobody talks or anything like that - that’s too much of a waste of time,” she laughs. |
Maxwell and Juliet
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Juliet, of course, comes from British acting royalty with her father being actor, Sir John Mills and her mother, the playwright, Mary Hayley Bell, who also wrote the novel, Whistle Down the Wind. In fact, her debut acting appearance was with her father in the movie, In Which We Serve, aged just 11 weeks! She is mostly known for her role in the long-running US show, Nanny and the Professor and was also in the NBC show, Passions, which was a huge hit and ran for 9 years. More recently she has appeared in ITV’s Wild at Heart as Caroline DuPlessis’s sister, played by her real-life sister, Hayley.
Maxwell and Juliet with sister, Hayley (Left)
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It surely must have been inevitable that Juliet would become an actress but I wonder if there was ever a time where she may have ventured into another profession.
“When I was very young, I wanted to be a ballet dancer and I went to ballet school at Sadlers Wells,” she reveals, “I was ok, but I knew I was never going to be a swan, I was always going to be one of those signets in the corner. So, I decided I wanted to be an actress; and that was pretty early on.” Revealing another possible pursuit, she continues, “There was only one other career I sort of dabbled with and that was that I was rather interested in being a nun at one point. I think it was really more for the costume than the religious side of it,” she giggles, “if you like dressing up, it’s a great outfit!” |
I can’t resist asking Juliet about her equally famous godparents, Noel Coward and Vivien Leigh, and whether she saw much of them when she was younger.
“I did actually because they were all very close friends with my parents. They were quite a tight little group in the forties and fifties. They all lived close by to each other and worked with each other and so I did see a lot of both of them: more of Vivien than Noel because he was always travelling, but particularly Vivien. I spent a lot of time with her, even as a child.”
It is well documented that Vivien Leigh’s ex husband, Leigh Holman, gained custody of their daughter, Suzanne, after Vivien married Laurence Olivier and Juliet confides to me that at the time she felt that she sort of became Vivien’s surrogate daughter.
“You know, she didn’t have a child with Larry. She took a lot of interest in me and my life; and she spoiled me. I used to go to her flat when I was quite young and she used to sit me on the floor with her jewel case and I’d play around with her jewels. She’d take me to her couturiers when she was going to choose clothes for an event and I used to sit there watching all the mannequins coming out. I was very, very lucky. It was a very glamorous life.” Did Juliet realise at the time just how special those moments were.
“I did. She was so exquisite. She had such wonderful style and glamour and she lived a wonderful life of theatre and makeup. She and Larry were so happy together. I did realise, I think, even then that this was the creme de la creme, that it didn’t get better than that.”
One particularly special moment stands out for Juliet of her time with Vivien Leigh.
“One of my happiest memories is when we were both in New York. This time I was eighteen and I was in a play called Five Finger Exercise on Broadway and she was in a play called Duel of Angels. It was at that time that we became friends as adults, rather than just me being a little girl - Aunty Viv and all that - and she called me up one day and said, you know I haven’t seen Gone with the Wind for about twenty years. They’re screening it at a big theatre in Times Square, would you like to come with me? Can you imagine? I sat next to Vivien Leigh watching Gone with the Wind. I’ll never forget that!”
“I did actually because they were all very close friends with my parents. They were quite a tight little group in the forties and fifties. They all lived close by to each other and worked with each other and so I did see a lot of both of them: more of Vivien than Noel because he was always travelling, but particularly Vivien. I spent a lot of time with her, even as a child.”
It is well documented that Vivien Leigh’s ex husband, Leigh Holman, gained custody of their daughter, Suzanne, after Vivien married Laurence Olivier and Juliet confides to me that at the time she felt that she sort of became Vivien’s surrogate daughter.
“You know, she didn’t have a child with Larry. She took a lot of interest in me and my life; and she spoiled me. I used to go to her flat when I was quite young and she used to sit me on the floor with her jewel case and I’d play around with her jewels. She’d take me to her couturiers when she was going to choose clothes for an event and I used to sit there watching all the mannequins coming out. I was very, very lucky. It was a very glamorous life.” Did Juliet realise at the time just how special those moments were.
“I did. She was so exquisite. She had such wonderful style and glamour and she lived a wonderful life of theatre and makeup. She and Larry were so happy together. I did realise, I think, even then that this was the creme de la creme, that it didn’t get better than that.”
One particularly special moment stands out for Juliet of her time with Vivien Leigh.
“One of my happiest memories is when we were both in New York. This time I was eighteen and I was in a play called Five Finger Exercise on Broadway and she was in a play called Duel of Angels. It was at that time that we became friends as adults, rather than just me being a little girl - Aunty Viv and all that - and she called me up one day and said, you know I haven’t seen Gone with the Wind for about twenty years. They’re screening it at a big theatre in Times Square, would you like to come with me? Can you imagine? I sat next to Vivien Leigh watching Gone with the Wind. I’ll never forget that!”
Juliet with Vivien Leigh
I presume that things must have changed quite a bit from those heady days when Juliet was just 18 years old and performing on Broadway.
“Oh yes indeed. It’s a very, very different business altogether now. I wouldn’t have minded being around in the forties - that’s my favourite period actually, which is kind of why I like doing this play, The Lady Vanishes - it’s a real period piece.”
Having watched The Lady Vanishes movie myself over the weekend, I was surprised at just how much humour was to be had in it for a thriller.
“There’s a lot of humour in the play too,” Juliet informs me. “There are some very funny characters. You know, it’s actually that comedy thriller genre in the theatre that Alan Ayckbourn is a master of. It’s my favourite genre because people love to be scared in the theatre and at the same time there’s that release of laughter. The combination really works, I think.”
Juliet is playing the ‘vanishing lady’ Miss Froy in the production and she can’t wait to get started.
“The character is very clearly drawn in the script. It’s a very good part. It hasn’t really been too hard for me to imagine Miss Froy and I’m fleshing her out now. She’s a very interesting character and I’m really enjoying playing her, I must say.”
“Oh yes indeed. It’s a very, very different business altogether now. I wouldn’t have minded being around in the forties - that’s my favourite period actually, which is kind of why I like doing this play, The Lady Vanishes - it’s a real period piece.”
Having watched The Lady Vanishes movie myself over the weekend, I was surprised at just how much humour was to be had in it for a thriller.
“There’s a lot of humour in the play too,” Juliet informs me. “There are some very funny characters. You know, it’s actually that comedy thriller genre in the theatre that Alan Ayckbourn is a master of. It’s my favourite genre because people love to be scared in the theatre and at the same time there’s that release of laughter. The combination really works, I think.”
Juliet is playing the ‘vanishing lady’ Miss Froy in the production and she can’t wait to get started.
“The character is very clearly drawn in the script. It’s a very good part. It hasn’t really been too hard for me to imagine Miss Froy and I’m fleshing her out now. She’s a very interesting character and I’m really enjoying playing her, I must say.”
Juliet on board the train with the cast of The Lady Vanishes
After weeks of rehearsing I say to Juliet that it will be nice to see and hear the audience reactions to the play, to which she agrees.
“Very often it’s quite a surprise. You’ve been rehearsing in deadly silence with people sort of yawning over their coffee and suddenly you get into the theatre and you say something and there’s a laugh and you think, oh my gosh, I didn’t realise that was funny!”
It's been such a pleasure talking to Juliet and I tell her that I can’t wait to see her in the play, along with the rest of the fabulous cast, when it comes to Southend.
“They’re all very good,” she responds enthusiastically, “I think you’ll enjoy it I must say!”
The Lady Vanishes is playing at Southend’s Palace Theatre from 21st to the 26th January. See website for more information and tickets at www.southendtheatres.org.uk or call the box office on 01702 351135.
“Very often it’s quite a surprise. You’ve been rehearsing in deadly silence with people sort of yawning over their coffee and suddenly you get into the theatre and you say something and there’s a laugh and you think, oh my gosh, I didn’t realise that was funny!”
It's been such a pleasure talking to Juliet and I tell her that I can’t wait to see her in the play, along with the rest of the fabulous cast, when it comes to Southend.
“They’re all very good,” she responds enthusiastically, “I think you’ll enjoy it I must say!”
The Lady Vanishes is playing at Southend’s Palace Theatre from 21st to the 26th January. See website for more information and tickets at www.southendtheatres.org.uk or call the box office on 01702 351135.